Dusk and Desire - A Mattheo Riddle Story

Burning To Ash

"Psst. Psst."

Was there a gnat in her ear?

"Psst. Nora."

Possibly some form of pest?

"Noooora. Noooora."

Well, now that sounded like a ghost.

"Nora, I swear to Merlin if you don't respond I'm going to scream—"

"What, Riddle?" she growled, looking up and seeing the way that Mattheo Riddle was completely turned backward in his seat.

He grinned. She hated how much she liked the sight of that damn, dimpled grin. "Hi, pretty girl."

"You are impossible."

"Just impossible? Not insufferable? Have I been demoted?"

Nora rolled her eyes and continued to take notes while Professor Trelawney drolled on and on about some prophetic dream she had about a cat and an umbrella. She had a bad feeling that this would come up on examinations later. Trelawney was just batty enough to do it.

"Psst, Nora... Princess... Sexy bi—"

"Could you stop talking?" Nora hissed as she whipped up, her tight half-up braid shrieking in pain with how quickly she moved. "Do you even know how to close your mouth?"

"No, he doesn't," Theodore Nott supplied from where he was sitting next to Mattheo. "I think he was born with a different jaw structure."

"That explains it," she muttered under her breath.

Nora went to turn back to her class—you know, the thing she should be paying attention to—but Mattheo grabbed her hair and twirled it around his finger, bringing her attention right back to where he sat, staring at her like a puppy looking at its master. She couldn't help but melt a little bit at the way he so casually touched her. Like it was second nature. Like he couldn't help but not touch her.

In a way, it made Nora feel a little better. She wasn't entirely sure why it made her feel better because she definitely still hated him. But after a few weeks of fucking in the darkness of his bedroom or the quiet of a broom closet, it was almost nice to be out in the open. Like he didn't need to hide her or something.

Not that Nora cared or anything. Liking Mattheo Riddle would be utterly ridiculous. And Nora was not ridiculous.

But already, there was a small part of her that disagreed. She hated that part but it existed all the same. Remember what happened? You can't afford to trust him, she reminded herself. So she forced herself to distance herself from him as much as possible. She rarely talked to him outside of fucking unless it was to insult him. She never stayed a minute after they were done, never cuddled, never called him a name outside of sex. Because liking Mattheo Riddle wasn't just ridiculous. It was dangerous too.

She remembered a time when those chocolate brown eyes pulled her in like a river dragging her out to sea. She remembered a time when she longed to know what those curls felt like underneath her fingers. She remembered a time when Mattheo made her feel like men might be more than fools destined to break her heart.

But there was a reason memories were in the past.

"Can I help you with something?" Nora said dryly.

Mattheo grinned again. The dip dimple in his cheek popped out as if it, too, were waving hello. "You can help me with a lot of things."

"Ugh." Aditi pretended to dry heave from beside her, finally pulling herself into the conversation. "I liked it better when you two were seconds away from killing each other."